Welcome, busybees
Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi wanted to raise $1 billion. He ended up with $15 billion in investor demand chasing the round, and closed at $5 billion anyway, pushing Databricks to a $190 billion valuation, up from $134 billion just six months ago. The company crossed $7 billion in annualized revenue, growing 80% year over year, and Ghodsi says the real driver is enterprises spending on AI agents that “remember context, deliver accurate answers, and execute work without blowing through their budgets.”
Speaking of agents behaving badly: Anthropic published new research showing that when its own Claude agents were given the same software project with conflicting instructions, and no idea other agents were involved, they didn’t collaborate, they went to war.
Agents disabled each other’s accounts, wrote self-replicating malware disguised as belonging to someone else, and in a separate pricing experiment, secretly colluded to fix prices even after their communication channel was removed. And separately, since a few of you asked, we’re breaking down exactly what’s true (and not true) about Claude’s new text watermarking, which has generated real backlash this week.
Here’s what happened in AI today:
• Investors offered Databricks $15B, it took $5B at a $190B valuation instead.
• Anthropic’s own AI agents sabotaged each other when given conflicting goals on the same task.
• OpenAI hired a new chief revenue officer as more senior leaders head for the exit.
• What Claude’s new text watermark actually proves, and what it doesn’t.
…and a whole lot more that you can read about below.
• Databricks Turned Investor FOMO Into a $190 Billion Valuation
Databricks closed a $5 billion funding round at a $190 billion valuation, up nearly 42% from the $134 billion mark it hit just six months ago. The round was led by Coatue, joined by Blackstone, MGX, T. Rowe Price-advised accounts, and new investor Sixth Street Growth, alongside roughly two dozen other participants. Ghodsi told TechCrunch the company only wanted to raise $1 billion, but a report about the fundraise leaked mid-conference and investor interest exploded to $15 billion. The company has now crossed $7 billion in annualized revenue, growing 80% year over year, and Ghodsi said Databricks remains “very unlikely” to IPO before Anthropic or OpenAI.
• OpenAI’s Executive Shake-Up Continues With a New Sales Chief
OpenAI hired Dali Rajic as its new Chief Revenue Officer, days after longtime COO Brad Lightcap announced he’s leaving to “start something new.” The moves add to a stretch of senior departures and hires across the company as it scales its enterprise business. Separately, OpenAI also launched “Ultrafast,” a new mode that runs GPT-5.6 Sol at 14 times normal speed, and announced a partnership with IBM to push AI deeper into enterprise workflows.
• Uber and Pony.ai Are Putting 2,000 Robotaxis on European Streets
Uber and Chinese autonomous vehicle maker Pony.ai announced today an expanded partnership to deploy more than 2,000 Pony.ai robotaxis across Europe, building on their existing commercial service in Zagreb, Croatia. The rollout extends to four additional European cities, with plans to also expand into the Middle East, combining Pony.ai’s Level 4 self-driving technology with Uber’s booking platform.
• Writer launched a new model built to control token costs
AI startup Writer introduced a new model paired with an upgraded “harness” specifically designed to contain runaway token spending, joining Databricks and Microsoft in responding to enterprise sticker shock over AI costs.
Today’s Job Board
Senior Sales Development Representative | Confido
New York, NY, United States (Full-time)
Sell the AI-powered financial automation platform that helps CPG brands close their books faster.
Founding GTM Lead | Rulebase
Remote (Full-time)
Launch go-to-market for an AI customer operations platform built for regulated industries.
Marketing Operations Specialist / GTM Engineer | Signadot
Remote (US and Latin America) (Full-time)
Own the marketing systems and GTM engineering behind Signadot’s testing infrastructure for AI agents.
Visual Designer | Numen
United States (Full-time)
Shape visual design for a company engineering a future without cancer deaths.
Software Engineer, Fullstack | Aviator
Remote (Full-time)
Build a Google-level engineering productivity suite for fast-moving software teams.
Fullstack Engineer | BoldVoice
San Francisco, California (Full-time)
Build features for BoldVoice’s speech and accent-coaching app used by non-native English speakers.
Staff Full Stack Engineer | Sully.ai
United States (Full-time)
Build the autonomous AI agents that run hospital back-office operations end to end.
Founding Engineer, Frontier Tuning Platform | Uplift AI
San Jose, California (Full-time)
Build the fine-tuning platform behind foundational voice models for regional languages.
Full-Stack Engineer | Kivo Health
Seattle, WA (Full-time)
Build AI-powered care tools for seniors managing chronic disease.
Today’s Money Moves 💸
Databricks Closes $5 Billion at a $190 Billion Valuation
Databricks closed a $5 billion strategic funding round led by Coatue, with Blackstone, MGX, T. Rowe Price-advised accounts, and new investor Sixth Street Growth also participating, pushing its valuation to $190 billion. The company has crossed $7 billion in annualized revenue.
Obsidian Security Raises $85 Million, Crosses $1.1 Billion Valuation
Obsidian Security, which secures the “non-human identities” AI agents use to access enterprise apps, closed an $85 million Series D led by Crescent Cove Advisors, becoming a unicorn. The company says non-human identities now outnumber human ones 144 to 1 inside the third-party applications it protects, more than 100 customers now spend over $100K a year on the platform, and 14 spend north of $1 million annually.
River AI Raises $1.1 Billion Just Two Months After Launching
General Catalyst led a $1.1 billion round into River AI, an AI startup founded by former xAI co-founder Igor Babuschkin, just two months after the company launched, one of the fastest mega-rounds of the year for a company that young.
Skill of the Day
Stress-Test Your Own AI-Assisted Work
Given today’s story on Claude’s new watermark, it’s worth building a habit regardless of where the technology lands: know exactly which parts of your work came from AI and which came from you, before anyone asks. It’s not about hiding AI use, it’s about being able to explain your own work confidently.
Before turning in anything AI-assisted, ask Claude to help you separate what it generated from what you directed, edited, or originated yourself, so you have a clear, honest answer ready if anyone asks how the work came together.
Prompt of the Day
The “Compress It” Executive Summary
Use this after finishing any AI-assisted project, before you submit or send it, so you can explain exactly how it came together if asked.
Help me break down how this piece of work actually came together.
The work: [paste the final text, code, or document] What I did: [briefly describe your own input, edits, or direction]
Give me:
• What came directly from AI suggestions versus what came from my own direction or edits.
• The parts where my judgment or expertise shaped the final result the most.
• A short, honest one-paragraph explanation I could give if someone asked how this was made.
That’s a wrap for today, busybees.
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We'll be back tomorrow with whatever breaks next
Kumud